http://www.jewishworldreview.com --
THE MINUTES ticked by last Saturday morning like a newsreel from the
1940s: Bill Clinton had orchestrated his final hours as president so
that he'd hog 90 percent of an enabling media's attention. There were
time-killing weather reports on tv-as if the rain in Washington, DC,
were going to stop-but most of the action centered on Clinton's
last-minute plea-bargain with Robert Ray, the bizarre list of men and
women he pardoned and the record number of "farewell" speeches he'd
deliver to anyone still listening. This wasn't the standard Inauguration
Day protocol, but it was hardly a surprise. No one, except perhaps the
repulsive Alan Dershowitz, has ever accused the 42nd President of being
a classy kind of guy.

Flipping channels between Fox, MSNBC and CNN (I'd rather my sons watch
guttermouth rappers than the political pornography blasted onto the
screen by creeps like Dan Rather, Peter Jennings and Tom Brokaw), it was
one faceless anchor after pundit after politician commenting on
Clinton's staged frenzy of activity. He'll never go away! This man with
the voracious appetite for politics is the incoming shadow president!
Goodbye and Hello to the Comeback Kid! The opinion was unanimous: How
could an inexperienced and tongue-tied governor from Texas ever compete
with this larger-than-life dynamo? This was a man, despite a few
personal foibles, who defined an entire decade, and rescued his party
from forever wallowing in Dukakis-ville!

It was rough sledding, all this chitchat about that lovable rascal
Clinton, the ludicrous praise heaped upon an unscrupulous man who makes
a pop-culture speck like Eminem seem quaint in comparison. With all the
baloney from Al Gore and Joe Lieberman last fall about cleaning up the
"filth" in Hollywood, while they stuffed their pockets with checks from
those responsible for it, it was lamentable that the GOP couldn't
strategically carpet-bomb battleground states with tv advertising spots
that pinpointed the lies, finger-wagging and obfuscation of the Clinton
administration. George W. Bush's commercials were gauzy and flat.
Because of Clinton's good job-approval ratings, the high-voltage
footage-like Al Gore praising his boss on Impeachment Day at the '98
Rose Garden pep rally-was off-limits.

A relatively small number of protesters lined the streets of
Washington, but aside from a few tomatoes thrown at Bush's limo, this
crew was fairly lethargic. After all, it was windy and cold, and the
morning cartoons were still on. The New York Times' David Rosenbaum
tried to mold an article out of the dissent, but there was little to
work with. It's not as if the Vietnam War, which inflamed the boomer
generation, both out of sincere idealism and an instinct for
self-preservation, were around now to provide an impetus for a pampered
contemporary group of protesters who-whether white, yellow, black or
blue-have adopted "Disenfranchised" as their middle names. Rosenbaum
delivered a wan report for last Sunday's paper: "Many complained about
the ballot procedures and Supreme Court ruling that led to George W.
Bush's becoming president. Others demonstrated over global trade, civil
rights, abortion, capital punishment, rain forests and corporate power."

The usual lazy Susan of complaints. My favorite passage of the Times
reporter's pro forma dispatch was the following: "'It's sort of an
inchoate feeling,' said Anna Galland, a 21-year-old college student from
Evanston, Ill., who was carrying several different placards this morning
and had not decided which one to raise during the inauguration parade."
Congratulations, Miss Galland. "Inchoate" is a fancy word. I wonder if
you know which generals were present at Appomattox? Whoops, send MUGGER
to the showers for alluding to the Land of Dixie! Now I'll never get
dinner invites from Sens. Patrick Leahy and Richard Durbin.

W: STRONG OUT OF THE GATE
BUT THEN noon arrived last Saturday, and I swear the howls from Barbra
Streisand, Geraldo Rivera, Paul Begala, Tina Brown and Katie Couric
could be heard from coast to coast. When President Bush took the oath of
office, his proud family providing a Norman Rockwell tableau on the
podium, all at once Clinton's visage grew dimmer and dimmer. Snotty
journalists made great sport of the fact that both GWB and GHWB shed a
tear or two, as if that were a fatal indication of weakness. The heck
with 'em. No one in the extended Bush clan will admit it, but part of
the reason George W. ran for president was to avenge his father's loss
to an inferior man from Arkansas. That he accomplished that long-odds
feat, while pelted with unimaginable ridicule, is testament to his
determination and singlemindedness, an estimable trait for a chief
executive. I'm certain it was the happiest day of former President
Bush's life-not to mention his wife Barbara's-witnessing the swearing-in
of his oldest son as the new president. I don't care at all for the
politics of the arrogant Kennedy family, but their devotion to each
other, like the Bush family's, is a glorious trait.

Streisand

Maybe it was the weather in Washington, but as the cameras panned to
the outgoing President, he looked gray and white-not unlike third-day
snow on the ground-as if he'd aged 10 years in just five minutes. And
when Bush gave his inaugural address, Clinton looked pained. Because
what the 43rd President said for posterity was that his administration
would stand for dignity and character, two words that have been erased
from the Oval Office dictionary these past eight years.

Suddenly, the political focus of the United States was clear. I don't
like to indulge in cornpone, but as Bush spoke, it was like when The
Wizard of Oz turned from black and white to color. Bush's brief but
sharp description of his administration's goals was as clear a
declaration of intent as has been heard since Ronald Reagan assumed the
presidency 20 years ago.

He said: "Today we affirm a new commitment to live out our nation's
promise through civility, courage, compassion and character... Together,
we will reclaim America's schools before ignorance and apathy claim more
young lives. We will reform Social Security and Medicare, sparing our
children from struggles we have the power to prevent. And we will reduce
taxes to recover the momentum of our economy and reward the effort and
enterprise of working Americans. We will build our defenses beyond
challenge, lest weakness invite challenge. We will confront weapons of
mass destruction, so that a new century is spared new horrors."

There it was. The essence of Bush's campaign, presented not in a
verbose laundry list, but in several simple sentences. It doesn't take a
political scholar to interpret his goals: school vouchers, privatization
of inefficient government programs and institutions (how about the U.S.
Postal Service?), equitable tax reform, the welcoming of immigrants and
a refurbished, reinvigorated military. It remains to be seen how much of
this agenda Bush can accomplish-any number of failures will certainly
make him a one-term president-but he can't be accused of espousing
mushy, feel-good ambitions.

GET HIM OUTTA HERE
CLINTON WAS shameless even after he'd given up the White House keys. At
another farewell, this one staged at Andrews Air Force Base, the
nation's number-one narcissist told supporters: "You see that sign there
that says please don't go? I left the White House, but I'm still here! I
wish you well. You gave me the ride of my life, and I probably gave as
good as I got." Once again: me, myself and I.

I have no beef with Clinton pardoning his half-brother Roger, who
traded on the President's status in a skeezy but sometimes entertaining
way, not unlike the late Billy Carter. And the inclusion of Patty Hearst
on the list was long overdue. Webb Hubbell must be muttering about not
making the cut, while Susan McDougal got her reward. Them's the breaks,
Webb. Besides, you probably never flashed a little ankle to the King of
Dogpatch.

But the most inexcusable recipient of Clinton's hodgepodge
government-sanctioned generosity was fugitive Marc Rich, the 66-year-old
commodities trader who's still on the lam in Switzerland after his
indictment for tax evasion, racketeering, fraud and suspect oil deals
with Iran. A story in Sunday's New York Post noted that Rich, as of
Saturday night, was still listed as an "international fugitive" on the
Justice Dept.'s website, along with partner Pinky Green, who was also
given a pass by Clinton.

Dole

Crooks living abroad, who haven't demonstrated any contrition, aren't
usually treated by U.S. presidents in such a cordial manner. But then,
Rich, whose ex-wife Denise has raised large amounts of cash (the
Washington Times reported nearly $1.3 million) for the Democratic Party,
isn't just a run-of-the-mill criminal. It's not hard to connect the
dots: for all the public knows, Marc and Denise Rich, although divorced,
may have a businesslike relationship not unlike the Clintons'. And so,
since we know that Clinton was indiscriminate about where his campaign
funds came from, it's not a stretch to believe that Rich dug deep into
that Swiss bank account to make sure Bob Dole was rubbed out early in
the '96 election. I can envision a Marc Rich wing of the Clinton
Presidential Library-how about you?

On Sunday, kibitzing with reporters at a Chappaqua deli, Clinton
defended his pardons, saying, "You're not saying these people didn't
commit the offense. You're saying they paid. They paid in full and
they've been out enough after their sentence to show they're good
citizens, so they ought to have a chance to get full citizenship."
Rich didn't "pay" a debt to society in the usual sense, and he never
served a jail sentence. But there were, typically, extenuating
circumstances. Does it surprise anyone that Rich's attorney, Jack Quinn,
who served in the Clinton administration, lobbied successfully for the
pardon?

The New York Times-surprise-didn't make much of this eye-popping
pardon, burying Rich's name deep into its story about the 140 people who
received pardons. However, the paper did devote a separate story to
Michael Milken, the unfairly maligned financier-turned-philanthropist
(after a detour in the pokey), who wasn't let off the hook in Clinton's
last hours as president. As I wrote recently, Milken didn't need to
dirty himself by accepting a gift from a lesser man like Clinton. As it
turned out, he was quoted in the Times as saying, "Back in '93, I was
given a year to live [he'd been diagnosed with prostate cancer], so in
that context, it's hard to be disappointed about this."

Clinton might've skated on his own obstruction of justice charges-and
maybe he'll never be held accountable for the crimes he committed while
president-but investigative reporters will be busy for years piecing
together the corruption, financial and political, that will ultimately
define his two terms in
office.

JWR contributor "Mugger" -- aka Russ Smith -- is the editor-in-chief and CEO of New York Press (www.nypress.com). Send your comments to him by clicking here.